87,600 meals


In one year you will eat 1,095 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner).

With life expectancy around 80 years for a woman, you will consumer 87,600 meals in your life time.

If you are married for 50 years, you will prepare 54,750 meals for your husband.

That is a lot of cooking and eating!!

Each of those meals you cook for your husband, you have decided on what to cook, how healthy it will be, the cost, the length of time it will take, what food you need to buy . . . . you have been one busy lady in the kitchen. As wives we all have a responsibility to cook healthy meals for our husbands and the best and cheapest way of doing this is by home cooking. It isn't hard, it doesn't take as long as you might think and it tastes 100% better than anything you buy in the shop. 

My mother was a great home cook and she taught my three siblings and I how to cook and I have passed on those skills to my sons. I am forever thankful for having a mother who gave us these invaluable skills as I have read so many blogs were women have left home and haven't had a clue and struggled to learn basic cookery. 

The slow insidious displacement of home cooked and communally shared family meals by the industrial food system has fattened our nation and weakened our family ties. In 1900, 2 percent of meals were eaten outside the home. In 2010, 50 percent were eaten away from home and one in five breakfasts is from McDonald's. Most family meals happen about three times a week, last less than 20 minutes and are spent watching television or texting while each family member eats a different microwaved "food." More meals are eaten in the minivan than the kitchen. (Huffington Post, 1/9/2011, written by Mark Hyman)

This has probably got even worse since this article was written in 2011. I cannot imagine what our future mothers and wives will be feeding their children and husbands, if things don't change, the health of the nation will continue to decline. I don't believe it has to do with mothers working per se, I think we live in an age of laziness. Women do have the time, sadly many choose to not use it wisely. 

We complain of not having enough time to cook, but Americans spend more time watching cooking on the Food Network than actually preparing their own meals. In his series, "Food Revolution," Jamie Oliver showed us how we have raised a generation of Americans who can't recognize a single vegetable or fruit, and don't know how to cook. (Huff Post)

I work full-time and we rarely have take-away or processed foods. I am not amazing in any way and  I am no superwoman, I just put my family first and foremost. They are my first priority and even for working women, where there is a will, there is a way. I don't cook elaborate meals, but what I cook is are healthy and tasty. My husband loves a roast, I do that weekends when I have plenty of time. We use the slow cooker in winter and eat lots of salads in summer. It isn't rocket science and all women can do it, if they want to, its just that many don't and find many reasons why they shouldn't. 

One hundred years ago all we ate was local, organic food; grass-fed, real, whole food. There were no fast-food restaurants, there was no junk food, there was no frozen food -- there was just what your mother or grandmother made. Most meals were eaten at home. In the modern age that tradition, that knowledge, is being lost. (Huff Post)

Eating healthy is important - we are God's creation, He expects us to protect, nourish and take good care of our bodies and the bodies of our husbands (I see it as part of being my husband's helpmate).  God also created a plethora of great tasty foods (no, not the stuff that comes out of cans) for us to enjoy and get pleasure from so we need to start the revolution of returning to the kitchen and cooking.  We need to teach our daughters (and sons) how to cook healthy meals from scratch. We need our children to get excited over home cooked meals and less excited about supermarket food. 

That we need nutritionists and doctors to teach us how to eat is a sad reflection of the state of society. These are things our grandparents knew without thinking twice about them. What foods to eat, how to prepare them, and an understanding of why you should share them in family and community have been embedded in cultural traditions since the dawn of human society.(Huff Post)

My husband likes to go for a walk and often when he is walking up the street towards our house he can smell dinner cooking. Sadly, it is often the only meal he can smell cooking on our street. He says it makes him want to come home as it smells so yummy. What an incentive to cook for our husbands. 

Whats on your menu this week? 

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Comments

  1. I cook wholesome meals everyday and have since the day I got married I also taught my 3 daughters to cook and they all cook everyday for their own families. A mealtime is a time for sharing news of the day in our house, we always called it table talk and allowed our children to update us on the days events.

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    1. It isn't hard or rocket science to make home cooked meals and its so much cheaper and tastier. Whilst I like a good take-away occasionally (from my local Chinese), it never tastes as good as what we eat at home!! And, yes, eating should be a social occasion, the French have it right there.

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  2. I love cooking and the joy it puts on my family's face. I love knowing they are eating healthy and the house always smells great. This post just reminded me to go check on my bread dough. :)

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    1. There is nothing nicer than the smell of yummy food cooking!!! Hope that dough is ok!!

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  3. To me, cooking and baking is a creative outlet. It's a way I can not only feed my family, but also please them. I usually love spending time in the kitchen creating healthy wholesome delicious meals. I must admit that since our diet has been changed due to health issues (thyroid and gluten free), cooking hasn't been quite as enjoyable at times due to the limitations those conditions put on our diet and the ingredients we can use. But even then, most of the time I find it fun to either follow a really good recipe or even experiment with making up my own recipes. There is amazing satisfaction in seeing the delight on family members' faces as they taste something delicious you have made yourself. And the same with feeding friends and relatives too.
    I have also taught my children to cook - and they have both learned to love getting into the kitchen and being creative or trying new recipes! :)

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    1. Now that C is at home I am learning how to cook vegan (for him) and then make the meat part to add for hubby and I. It is working so far and not quite as hard as I first thought!! I plan to make some vegan sausage rolls, vegan rissoles and some pies for him, so when we make salads in summer I can include one of these when we have steak etc... It does mean thinking outside the square!!

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  4. The cost alone means cooking at home is pretty much my only option.
    But my kids really don't expect anything else, they don't know to expect otherwise. Though they do enjoy the very occasional take-away =) When someone else is paying -I do too =)
    That is lots of meals though =)
    Oh, and I think we think about the food too much, variety is too important to us, we can be healthy and eat similar meals often =) Mind over matter =)
    love,
    Bets

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    1. It is a lot cheaper to cook meals at home. We occasionally buy Chinese take-away from our favourite restaurant but it isn't very often as I do prefer my own home cooked meals!!!

      I have a standard set of recipes I tend to use, partly because they are simple and easy to make (I do love the one pot meal) but they are often adaptable and I can add any vegetable I have in the fridge and as a result they taste a little different every time. In summer we eat lots of salads but I do try and vary the meat so its not always the same dish as that does get a little boring.

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  5. My husband and I pretty much always cook. Even when we were both working full time. The last week we had a couple of nights in a row where we ate takeout (we were doing up our house for sale and had some strict time frames) and it made me feel awful. I was so excited to go back to home cooked meals. And I can't wait for my son to be old enough to learn how to cook.

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    1. I taught both my boys to cook and now as adults they are very confident in the kitchen and love to prepare meals. Whilst I enjoy the occasional take-away, nothing beats home cooking :)) It even makes you feel better and healthier because you know what has gone into it.

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  6. Oh how devastating to read that 50% of meals are eaten out of the home! That is quite shocking really.
    My mother was never a big cook and she enjoyed easy packet food, or food from outside of the home. Funnily enough that actually motivated me to learn how to cook myself.

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    1. I don't mind the occasional meal out, but after a while it gets a bit boring and nothing beats a home cooked meal that is cook with lots of healthy vegetables.

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